Still Froggy after all these years

Most people think Corey Haim was Corey Feldman’s vampire-hunting brother in the 1987 film The Lost Boys. It’s an easy mistake to make, but Haim was actually the lead, while Feldman and Jamison Newlander played Edgar and Alan Frog, respectively, stake-wielding siblings after the bloodsucker Kiefer Sutherland.

And though Haim has a small part in Lost Boys: The Tribe, the sequel that was released on DVD on Tuesday, it’s the Frog brothers who reprise their roles in this installment. Both Feldman and Newlander attended the film’s world premiere at Comic-Con, and even though they hadn’t worked together in more than two decades, Feldman says it was easy to get back in the vampire-killing groove.

“It was like we shot scenes yesterday,” he said.

“Corey and I have a really cool chemistry,” Newlander said. “This whole rebirth of The Lost Boys is great. It’s got the same mood, the same rock ’n’ roll teenagers.”

“A lot of things carried over,” Feldman said. “Kiefer Sutherland became a huge star. Jason Patric, Jami Gertz—they all got their careers launched by that movie. We all achieved and gained quite a bit from Lost Boys. Hopefully the second one has the same kind of stamp.”

Of course, the elephant in the room is that despite the best efforts of the filmmakers and the cast, LB2 is going straight to DVD. “It’s a different world, a different market, and you’ve got to stay current with the times,” said Feldman, who had seen the film’s world premiere the night before. “But I don’t want to lose the opportunity for everybody getting together and sharing a movie. Direct-to-the-consumer marketing is where it’s at these days, and we’re happy to be ahead of the curve. But you still want the biggest potential possible outlet for your vehicle.”

Still, he says, just getting the movie out there is pretty sweet. “Sure, things must change; things must evolve. It’s part of life. And second best is pretty good these days. Hopefully we can find a positive in it, and if not, at least we can kill some vampires along the way.”
—Anders Wright

Opening

Baghead: Mark and Jay Duplass direct this low-budget “mumblecore” flick about a group of friends who attempt to write a horror movie, only to find themselves in one. See our review here.

Brideshead Revisited: The latest version of Evelyn Waugh’s pre-WWII novel is brought to life by director Julian Jarrold and a cast of distinguished Brits, including Emma Thompson and Michael Gambon. If you like Atonement and Merchant Ivory productions, this should be right up your alley. The rest of us may be caught nodding off from time to time.

The Last Mistress: Dynamic Italian actress Asia Argento stars in French director Catherine Breillat’s 19th-century period drama, exploring the erotic desires hidden behind the aristocracy’s veil of nobility and honor. Breillat’s visual style can be thrilling, but you may end up wishing there were more sex and less chatting.

The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor: It’s hard to imagine there were fans begging for a second sequel in The Mummy franchise, but Brendan Fraser is back for this trilogy-capping finale, co-starring Maria Bello and Jet Li. Chances are Fraser will deliver a lot of dumb catchphrases, Bello will look hot and Li will, um, kick people in the face.

The Stone Angel: An adaptation of the 1964 novel by Canadian author Margaret Laurence, The Stone Angel plot line sounds warily similar to a Manitoba version of The Notebook or Fried Green Tomatoes covered in maple syrup. But this tale of old biddy Hagar Shipley (Ellen Burstyn) flashbacking on her life is controversial enough to have provoked fundamentalist Christians to call it “blasphemous” and “obscene,” which is a ringing endorsement in our book.

Swing Vote: Kevin Costner stars in this presidential-election comedy, playing a lazy, beer-drinking everyman who, through some no-doubt-plausible chain of events, becomes the one man whose vote will decide who becomes the next president of the United States. There’s a whole mess of other household names, including Nathan Lane, Kelsey Grammer and Dennis Hopper as the Democratic Party candidate.

One time only

A Hard Day’s Night / Making of a Hard Day’s Night: Perfect night out for Beatlemaniacs. A Hard Day’s Night is, of course, the Beatles’ classic black-and-white day-in-the-life film. And the making-of doc that follows it will show you just how real—or not—what you just finished watching was. Got that? Whatever—just love me do. Screens at 8 p.m. Wednesday, July 30, at The Pearl Hotel in Point Loma. Free.

National Lampoon’s Vacation: Ah, Wally World, destination of kings. And tourists, like the Griswold clan, who go through hell and back to get there. They’re led by the hapless Clark, played to the hilt by Chevy Chase when he was at the top of his super powers. Screens at 9 p.m. Wednesday, July 30, at Stone Brewing World Bistro & Gardens in Escondido. Free.

Long Way Down: The “exclusive director’s cut” of this documentary—depicting Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman’s 2007 motorcycle journey from Scotland to South Africa—will be shown only at 7:30 p.m., Thursday, July 31, at AMC Mission Valley, Horton Plaza and Edwards Mira Mesa.

Dog Day Afternoon: “Attica! Attica!” Al Pacino gives one of his best performances as Sonny, a young man who attempts to rob a bank in order to pay for his boyfriend’s sex-change surgery. Director Sidney Lumet keeps the tension high throughout, and the typically overlooked John Cazale is great as Sonny’s bumbling partner Sal. All in all, it’s one of the better American films of the 1970s, as evidenced by its numerous Oscar nominations. Screens at 8:30 p.m. Thursday and Friday, July 31 and Aug. 1, at Cinema Under the Stars in Mission Hills.

Bee Movie: This CGI-animated Jerry Seinfeld vehicle should give adults a few chuckles while keeping the kiddies entertained by wacky talking insects. The title is a clever pun, but like the rest of the movie, it’s not nearly as clever as it wants to be. Screens at 7 p.m. Friday, Aug. 1, at the Market Street Plaza in Encanto. Free.

Touch of Evil: Orson Welles never bettered this 1958 film noir masterpiece starring Charlton Heston and Janet Leigh. Sure, Welles looks worse for wear as Chief Quinlan, but rarely has a director displayed such commanding style in a commercial movie. Pay particular attention to the opening tracking shot, which is among the most famous sequences in American film history. Screens at 8:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, Aug. 2 and 3, at Cinema Under the Stars in Mission Hills.

Citizen Kane: The American Film Institute says the Orson Welles classic is the greatest movie of all time, topping Casablanca, The Godfather, Gone with the Wind and Lawrence of Arabia. ’Nuff said. Screens at 6:30 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 3, at Café Libertalia in Hillcrest. Free.

Dirty Dancing: Is there anything worse than having to watch Patrick Swayze pirouette around in an insipidly plotted 1980s romance? Ladies, we know you love it, but we beg you not to drag your boyfriends out to this one. Have a heart! Screens at 8 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 6 at 8 p.m. at The Pearl Hotel in Point Loma. Free.

The Princess Bride: If you’ve seen Rob Reiner’s 1987 fantasy and didn’t like it, you have no soul. Safe enough for kids, clever enough for adults and charming enough for damn near everybody, it’s hard to beat The Princess Bride for across-the-board appeal. Endlessly quotable appearances by Mandy Patinkin, Wallace Shawn and Peter Cook only add to the reasons you should want to revisit this one. Screens at 9 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 6 at Stone Brewing World Bistro & Gardens in Escondido. Free.

Now playing

Bustin’ Down the Door: Surfing doc about the summer of 1975, when a crew of shredders from South Africa and Australia descended on Hawaii, changing the sport forever.

Step Brothers: An excuse for Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly to act like 14-year-old boys. Both are 40-year-olds who still live at home. When their parents get hitched, they suddenly find they have to get in each other’s faces. Yes, it’s scatological and raunchy—it’s so over-the-top that Step Brothers benefits from its R-rating. Still, it feels like it’s a movie for 15-year-old boys who will have to sneak in.

The X-Files: I Want to Believe: Is the truth still out there? It’s been more than half-a-decade since Mulder and Scully went on the run and The X-Files went off the air. The new movie, directed by series creator Chris Carter, revisits the iconic characters, giving them another case that’ll test their mettle and, perhaps, their faith.

The Dark Knight: It’s finally here, and yes, Christopher Nolan’s new Batman movie is everything you hoped it would be. An epic two-and-a-half-hour crime drama that examines the complicated nature of good, evil and heroism and simply must be seen on an Imax screen to be believed. Christian Bale, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Aaron Eckhard are all well-served by a tense, taut script, but it truly is Heath Ledger’s movie, as he plays Batman’s nemesis, The Joker, with a shambling malevolence that’s terrifying and intense.

Mamma Mia!: The hit Broadway musical consisting of nothing but Abba tunes is turned into a big, fat Hollywood movie. But this one’s got Meryl Streep as an overbearing mother. Her daughter Sophie is getting married, but she doesn’t know who her dad is. So she invites all of mom’s exes—Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth and Stellan Skarsgård—to the wedding.

Space Chimps: Andy Samberg plays a chimp—not a stretch—who’s the grandson of the original space-bound monkey. He and his cohorts end up on a strange planet that is, sadly, not the Planet of the Apes. But it is ruled by nasty overlord Jeff Daniels. Oh, yeah, it’s animated. In case you weren’t sure.

Tell No One: A French doctor, whose wife was murdered years ago, finds that the police have reopened the case and that he’s a suspect once again. Worse, he gets an e-mail that links to a video clip that suggests that perhaps his wife is actually still alive.

Hellboy II: The Golden Army: Guillermo del Toro and his big-fisted, solid-rock superhero are back for a rematch with the supernatural. This is a good thing. We got the origin story out of the way in the first movie, so del Toro should be freewheeling and fancy-free when it comes to this story, which has something to do with Hellboy saving Earth from the demon hordes. There is no director working today with such command over visual imagery, and Ron Perlman makes for a great Hellboy.

Journey to the Center of the Earth: Kids won’t have to be too tall to ride the undoubtedly forthcoming theme-park ride based upon this 3D re-envisioning of the Jules Verne classic, because it is decidedly PG. It’s not bad, necessarily, just somewhat bland and inoffensive. Brendan Fraser is the laughingstock of the scientific community who takes his nephew and a hot Icelandic mountain guide down into, well, the center of the earth. Where there are T-Rexes and all sorts of other dangers, all of which conveniently throw themselves directly at the camera. The 3D effect is OK, but the movie’s appeal is going to fall off dramatically on DVD.

The Wackness: Terrific coming-of-age story about a young pot dealer in NYC in 1994 trying to get to college, listen to phat beats and get with his shrink’s stepdaughter (played by Juno’s BFF, Olivia Thirlby). Oh yeah, and the shrink is the pot-smoking, pill-popping Ben Kingsley, going through a midlife crisis and delivering a performance that’s equal parts tragic and hilarious. Don’t miss his make-out scene with Mary-Kate Olsen.

Hancock: In Peter Berg’s dark new picture, Will Smith is Hancock, something of a quintessential American superhero—powerful as a locomotive, generally drunk and surly, often doing far more harm than good in a world of good intentions. But things change when he saves the life of idealistic publicist Jason Bateman, because the new guy decides to remake Hancock’s public image, and because his wife—Charlize Theron—is way hot.

Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson: Can a documentary really capture all the insanity and fear and loathing that really was Hunter S. Thompson? Consider—the director is Alex Gibney, who won an Oscar last year for Taxi to the Dark Side, and who is a gonzo filmmaker of sorts. And while most people think of him in terms of the film version of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Thompson was also an astute writer of both sports and politics, not to mention culture. And ladies, if that’s not enough, Johnny Depp provides the narration.

Kit Kittredge: An American Girl: Abigail Breslin stars as a precocious young reporter. It’s got a seriously high-profile supporting cast, but if you’re the target demo, you shouldn’t be reading CityBeat.

Wanted: The real star of this summer actioner isn’t poor-loser-turned-assassin James McAvoy or seriously MILFy Angelina Jolie—it’s Russian director Timur Bekmambetov, who goes to town with his massive Hollywood budget and his R-rating.

Wall*E: Our hopes are high for the cute li’l titular robot, whose trailers are enough to make us both laugh and cry. It’s hundreds of years in the future, and Wall*E’s been cleaning up our mess since we left. And along the way, he’s gotten lonely. Sure, we already get the An Inconvenient Truth messaging, but Pixar has yet to do us wrong.

Get Smart: Do 20-something hipsters today even know what Get Smart is? OK, primer time: This is a film based upon a Mel Brooks-created spy-spoof show that ran for five years, starting in 1965, starring the very funny Don Adams. Someone, somewhere, decided that a remake would make a good vehicle for Steve Carell.

Mongol: It’s like the early life and times of Genghis Khan. Nominated for the Best Foreign Film Oscar last year, this biopic is epic and bloody, as young Genghis is lowered to less than nothing. Of course, he then proceeds to kick everyone’s ass until he unites the tribes, rules Mongolia and waits for Part 2 of the planned trilogy to be filmed.

Kung Fu Panda: Jack Black voices Po, a chunky kung fu-fanboy Panda who’s just as surprised as the legendary fighters he admires when he’s chosen to save the Valley of Peace from the brutal snow leopard Tai Lung (Ian McShane). Panda looks kind of ridiculous on the surface, but it looks kind of awesome on the screen, one of those for-children-of-all-ages experiences. The animation is top-notch, and the action sequences are exciting and, unlike most animated flicks, not impossible to follow.

You Don’t Mess with the Zohan: There’s been some talk that Adam Sandler’s latest vehicle is actually sort of subversive, because it comes complete with plenty of jokes about terrorism and the Palestinian/Israeli conflict. But it also has Mariah Carey, which kind of cancels out any political overtones. The sometimes-funnyman is a former Mossad agent who runs off to New York to become a women’s hairdresser.

Sex and the City: The Movie: The big-screen version of the hit HBO show. Insert your own “women go cuckoo for this” joke here.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull: It’s great to have Harrison Ford back in his trademark fedora, even if the convoluted script feels more like just another sequel than a reinvention. Still, Indy 4 is easy-going entertainment and will easily be one of the biggest box-office earners of the year.

Iron Man: Robert Downey Jr. is Iron Man. Da na na na na Nah na na na na na Nah na na nah! Has he lost his mind? Da na na na na Nah na na na na na Nah na na nah!

Ongoing

The Rocky Horror Picture Show: No, it’s not a time warp—the love-it-or-hate-it camp classic continues its midnight run in its 37th year of release. When the lead character of the film is a transvestite scientist named Dr. Frank-N-Furter, you know you’re in for some seriously trashy viewing. And, of course, this is the one movie where you want the audience shouting at the screen. Screens Fridays at midnight at La Paloma Theater in Encinitas.

Fridays at the Fleet: Sea Monsters and Mysteries of Egypt are some of the rotating films shown each Friday at the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center’s IMAX theater where, for only $7.50, you can catch four flicks. Sure, it’s more Discovery Channel than Transformers, but the Fleet’s enormous old-school dome screen is way cool, and some of the talent—narrators like Meryl Streep or Johnny Depp—is impressive. You might find yourself as mesmerized as the little kiddies sitting around you. Reuben H. Fleet Science Center in Balboa Park. Check www.rhfleet.org for the screening list.